I want to talk about one more thing that will change Christmas. Can you think of somebody who is joy impaired? If we could fully embrace joy it would change our Christmas. Joy is a vital part of the Christmas story.

“And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10)

How do you get joy? You just can’t tell people to be joyful; it’s like trying to push spaghetti up a hill. The issue is not that we need joy; the issue is how do we get joy.

“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’” (Luke 2:10-12)

That is good news for everyone, but you must be willing to receive this gift.

As I’ve gotten older little seems to surprise me, and that’s tragic. Nothing really holds the wonder and awe for me the way it should. Is that true of you?

The joy of Christmas is the wonder and awe of the gifts. Kids are amazing; they are in awe and wonder of everything. I am afraid that the more a child hangs out with adults the more they lose their wonder and awe.

Step back from Christmas and look at all the gifts in your life…

This Christmas let’s turn down our cynicism and embrace wonder and awe. Stand in awe and wonder at all the gifts around you. To experience joy you need to go back to awe and wonder.

I want you to receive like a kid. I want you to be really, really, really excited.

God chose to enter our story and rewrite it. He chose to become man and give us grace. If you don’t receive grace you can’t experience grace. Christmas is about receiving grace.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Grace is a gift we can’t earn, didn’t deserve, but we must receive it like a child with wonder and awe and shock. We can’t experience it unless we receive it. Grace is a gift we must receive in order to have joy.

This Christmas have a little awe…have a little wonder…have a little shock!

Grace & Peace,

Why are we amazed at generosity? One of the reasons we are so moved by generosity is because we are wired to be generous. God created us to be givers, and deep down we know that generosity is right. We are meant to live and interact with one another on a level of giving, not taking.

From last week article I don’t want you to think of me as Pastor Grinch who stole Christmas by encouraging you to rebel against the economic empire of more. I certainly don’t want to turn you into Scrooge. I want us to give but give differently. It is an absolute joy to give; giving is a blessing. I want us to enjoy giving because we’ve been made by God to be givers.

Our giving should reflect the indescribable gift we’ve been given by God. God gave us the gift of His Son.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1)

That is God’s artistic was of describing God. He is simply saying that Jesus was God. Before there was anything there was Jesus. This reminds us that Jesus is eternal.

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3)

The stars are here because of Jesus; the trees are here because of Jesus; Fido and Flumpy are here because of Jesus; we are here because of Jesus.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

John is telling us that this incomprehensible and eternal Christ stepped out of heave and came here. He entered the story of our lives. You know what’s amazing about this? Jesus actually knew what He was doing. He knew what was going to happen. He knew the conclusion of His life. He knew He would end up on the cross. That is a gift that is so generous and so sacrificial that there is no other gift like it. This is the gift of presence.

If we are going to celebrate and honor Jesus this Christmas then we need to take our cue for giving from Him; we are going to need to follow His example. Our giving should reflect what God has given us. Here are just a couple of ideas:

First, we need to give specifically where people have need (Matthew 25:35-36, 40). If we want to love the way He loved then we need to give to the least of these which means to meet people’s real needs. Don’t give what we want, give what they need.

Second, give something personal (John 1:14). Think about it this way – God spoke this world into existence. To meet our deepest need, which is spiritual, He could have spoken, but He didn’t – HE SHOWED UP! The story of Christmas is that God came in close. Maybe this year we can give gifts that grow our relationships deeper. Giving this type of gift takes some thought. Here’s a kick-start for us: give the gift of presence, not presents. We have to think about it and we’re going to have to give our time.

Spend Less…Give More,

Okay, 43 days, 4 hours, and 2 minutes until Christmas! So this week I’m going write about the second pillar of the Advent Conspiracy – SPEND LESS! Now for some of you that sounds like good news from a far country, like cold water to a thirsty soul, or, as Southerners would prefer it, like a tall glass of sweet tea on a hot day! For others, meh, it’s bad news because either we like spending money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like, or because we like people spending lots of money on us…yes, I’m being a little snarky there. But here goes…

We need to learn to resist the empire of consumerism, and resisting this empire is going to take intentionality and strategy. You see, the empire of this world demands our allegiance at the risk of our souls.

“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36 ESV, Jesus)

Let me give you a taste of the empire we’re up against. Some of the hottest Christmas toys through the years: Mr. Potato Head (1952), Pet Rock (1975), Atari (1979), Cabbage Patch Dolls (1983), Game Boy (1991), Tickle Me Elmo (1996), Playstation 3 (2006), and Zhu Zhu Pets (2009). I wonder what it will be this year? What will be that one thing people need, can’t live without, and will go to any extreme to obtain even if it means they can’t afford it?

We live in a kingdom of gold and glitz. It is an empire of power, wealth, and materialism. How do we successfully resist this empire of our day? I believe the storyline of the Bible gives us the answer we are seeking. Our only hope of resisting the empire of spending more is the power of the gospel. What transformed and rescued us in the first place is what transforms and rescues us today.

Jesus entered the human scene during the time of Herod the Great. He was ruthless, wealthy, thirsty to conquer, and insecure (he killed his own family members because he felt threatened by them). Herod was more interested in saving his empire than he was in saving his soul. When the news of Jesus’ birth hit Herod the Great’s ears the Bible records that he was “troubled.” This means that he was thoroughly agitated, greatly distressed, and highly anxious. And when Herod wasn’t happy, nobody was allowed to be happy.

At this point Herod went on the attack. Because he felt threatened by a child born into poverty, he ordered the slaughter of all the baby boys in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18). He was not about to be outdone by some would-be poor, baby king born in an animal stall. He was going to squash the competition.

However, the empire will not threaten God’s purposes. He subverted Herod’s plan and power by waking Joseph in a dream. God’s plan of rescue through redemption will not be threatened by another kingdom (Matthew 2:13-15).

The power of the gospel is our only hope to resist the empire of today. We must intentionally plan ahead to spend less. We can’t wait until we get to the mall. Don’t go into debt to the empire of cultural consumerism; it only leads to a deeper bondage into the empire. If we rebel against the day of extravagant spending we need to be prepared for an attack. This attack may come from friends or family or even brothers and sisters in Christ, but resolve to spend less to give more. And that’s next week. And now we have only 43 days, 3 hours, and 15 minutes!

Grace & Peace,

As I write this there are just 51 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes until Christmas. That means that most of our shopping will be done in the next 30 days (give or take). Yes, Christmas is exciting, magical, wonderful, heartwarming, loving, and whatever adjective you can think of to describe this time of year. With that in mind, I wanted to get a good jump on the Christmas rush with a challenge I’ve been pushing for the last four years – Advent Conspiracy. Some of you may be new to this and so, for the sake of clarity I want to give you a brief synopsis of what this means…

The Advent Conspiracy is an idea a friend of mine in Illinois told me about (you can see more about it at www.adventconspiracy.org). The idea is that we take back Christmas from consumerism. It is simply a conspiracy among believers to recapture a true celebration of Christmas in the midst of a culture that is clamoring for more stuff while giving less of themselves to each other. The conspiracy can be summed up in four succinct tenets:

Worshipping fully is about getting back to the true message of Christmas:

“This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.” (1 John 4:10 The Message)

Christmas should be a time of getting caught up in the story – His story. We’ve messed everything up with our sin. Just take a look around during the holidays and see how many people are fighting, depressed and stressed. This just proves that we need someone to step in and rescue us; we need a hero; His name is Jesus. Jesus came into our story to change our story from tragedy to triumph, from doom to redemption. God’s amazing grace changes everything in our lives and that is what should capture our attention during Christmas. This knowledge transforms us from spenders to worshippers. God rescues us to create a worshiping throng. This is what happened to the shepherds and what should happen to us.

“And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” (Luke 2:20 ESV)

And now we have even less time before Christmas!

Grace & Peace,